I am getting a NullPointerException on the "recipe=" line and can only assume the scope of the props variable is getting truncated.

What do you mean by "scope is getting truncated"? As I've never heard this before and it makes no sense. Usually a scope problem will cause a compiler error not a run-time exception (unless you are shadowing the variable of interest without realizing it). I don't think that this is a scope issue but rather you are trying to call a method or get a field from a variable that is null, pure and simple. Walk back from the exception and see where you supposedly initiate the null variable.

Well I don't know how it is getting to be null. If I call the same method right after setting props in the try/catch block, it works successfully.

So since it is obviously not null in the RepairMe class, I fear that this really narrows it down to a scope issue since it is read as null from another class.

If you could look at how I declared the variables in the RepairMe class, am I accessing them in a legal way outside of the class? Again, I am no java guru, but have enough programming experience to kind of shove me along.

And are you sure which variable is null on that line? Are you sure that it's not the item variable or its type? Have you done System.out.println's to check this? It looks like you need to do some serious debugging here. Luck.